The phaen took him by the shoulder and held him at arm’s length, endeavouring to study him with aer unsteady eyes. “Faceny’s thoughts are obscure. I am his lover, you are a lover of women, yet he grants to you what he denies to me.” “What does he grant to me?” “To see him, and go on living. I shall die. But it’s immaterial. Tomorrow both of us will be dead.” Maskull impatiently shook himself free. “Your sensations may be reliable in your own case, but how do you know I shall die?” “Life is flaming up inside you,” replied Leehallfae, shaking aer head. “But after it has reached its climax—perhaps tonight—it will sink rapidly and you’ll die tomorrow. As for me, if I enter Threal I shan’t come out again. A smell of death is being wafted to me out of this hole.” “You talk like a frightened man. I smell nothing.” “I am not frightened,” said Leehallfae quietly—ae had been gradually recovering aer tranquillity—“but when one has lived as long as I have, it is a serious matter to die. Every year one puts out new roots.” “Decide what you’re going to do,” said Maskull with a touch of contempt, “for I’m going in at once.” The phaen gave an odd, meditative stare down the ravine, and after that walked into the cavern without another word. Maskull, scratching his head, followed close at aer heels. The moment they stepped across the bubbling spring, the atmosphere altered. Without becoming stale or unpleasant, it grew cold, clear and refined, and somehow suggested austere and tomblike thoughts. The daylight disappeared at the first bend in the tunnel. After that, Maskull could not say where the light came from. The air itself must have been luminous, for though it was as light as full moon on Earth, neither he nor Leehallfae cast a shadow. Another peculiarity of the light was that both the walls of the tunnel and their own bodies appeared colourless. Everything was black and white, like a lunar landscape. This intensified the solemn, funereal feelings created by the atmosphere. After they had proceeded for about ten minutes, the tunnel began to widen out. The roof was high above their heads, and six men could have walked side by side. Leehallfae was visibly weakening. Ae dragged aerself along slowly and painfully, with sunken head. Maskull caught hold of aer. “You can’t go on like that. Better let me take you back.” The phaen smiled, and staggered. “I’m dying.” “Don’t talk like that. It’s only a passing indisposition. Let me take you back to the daylight.” “No, help me forward. I wish to see Faceny.” “The sick must have their way,” said Maskull. Lifting aer bodily in his arms, he walked quickly along for another hundred yards or so. They then emerged from the tunnel and faced a world the parallel of which he had never set eyes upon before. “Set me down!” directed Leehallfae feebly. “Here I’ll die.”